Civil service reform

Why have orthodox approaches to civil service reform failed?

Civil service reform in many developing and ‘transitional’ economies is widely reported to have failed. Why? The weakest developing countries are exposed to the heaviest transfer of inappropriate western experience and new ideas about reform – that lack a clear understanding of and tailoring to the developing country context. The New Public Management reforms that have been the preference of donors are arguably the most inappropriate for the environments into which they are being implanted. New management approaches themselves assume a competent, merit-based, ruled-based bureaucracy.

Schick, A., 1998, 'Why Most Developing Countries Should Not Try New Zealand Reforms', World Bank Research Observer, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 123-131.
The New Zealand (NZ) model of public sector reform, in which managers work within a results-driven accountability framework, has attracted worldwide interest. But is it suitable for developing countries? This paper argues that the greater the shortcomings in a country’s management practices, the less successful the NZ reforms will be. Instead, developing countries should consider sequenced, measured improvements to reduce informality and build managerial capacity.
Access full text:available online

By comparison with the least developed countries, the middle income (e.g. Brazil), fast developing (e.g. India) and post-socialist (e.g. Vietnam and East Europe) countries have been able to pick and choose the reform experience they want to learn from or borrow from the West. In other words, they own their reforms. 

Turner, M., 2002, 'Choosing Items from the Menu: New Public Management in Southeast Asia', International Journal of Public Administration, vol. 25, no. 12, pp. 1493-1512.
Why have countries in Southeast Asia embraced some new public management (NPM) reforms and not others? This article argues that such divergence is not surprising. There are large contrasts between countries in the region and a number of non-Western elements are evident in the public sector. Both of these factors suggest that the adoption of NPM reforms will be at best partial and that countries will display a variety of responses to NPM.
Access full text: available online

Ultimately, successful civil service reform requires comprehension of the underlying political economy dynamics gained through robust analysis. This includes understanding the interplay between formal and informal governance systems and perverse incentives on both the partner government and the donor agency sides.

Scott, Z., 2011, ‘Evaluation of Public Sector Governance Reforms 2001-2011: Literature Review’, Oxford Policy Management
Why has Public Sector Governance Reform (PSGR) carried out in developing countries over the past decade not been effective? How can such interventions be improved? This literature review shows how much of the existing research emphasises underlying political economy and incentive problems, and the need for reforms to be demand-led rather than externally-driven. A fundamental rethink is needed on the way PSGRs are carried out: more attention needs to be paid to politics in both the design and the implementation of reforms.
Access full text: available online

Finally, the successful fast developing countries have put strong emphasis on building an elite cadre civil service (e.g. Singapore and South Korea)

Sarker, A., 2006, 'New Public Management in Developing Countries: An Analysis of Success and Failure with Particular Reference to Singapore and Bangladesh', International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 180-203.
How successful have developing countries been at implementing new public management (NPM) reforms? This article explains and analyses the factors influencing the relative success and failure of new public management initiatives with particular reference to Singapore and Bangladesh. The findings indicate that there may a greater role for the state in socio-economic transformation in general and the implementation of market-oriented reforms in particular.
Access full text: available online

New additions